Joy Drop: 'There is good in the world. And it's worth fighting for'

Instead of my usual cheerful salutation, I am here with a very heavy heart. There are no words to describe the pain and devastation that we witnessed in Uvalde, Tex. I have been thinking of little else, to be honest.

I spoke with my dear friend Renee and she asked me, "How are you gonna write Joy Drop this week?" I have been thinking about this online notebook entry and at some points this week, it didn't feel like I could do it. The pain of the community reverberated globally and manifested through anger and sadness online. My own heart was breaking constantly. I cried, kissed my kids incessantly and cuddled with my cat, Tara, a lot. Animals bring me a lot of comfort. 

Marie-Philip Poulin with her puppy, Arlo <a href="https://t.co/V3n5y1ClqS">pic.twitter.com/V3n5y1ClqS</a>

As such, something caught my eye yesterday and I decided to dig a little deeper, my journalistic skills coming into play. I contacted the Twitter account Hockey Players With Animals (And Other Chaos) and saw some of the most wonderful photos and videos.

It is no surprise that one of my other favourite follows on the blue bird app is Footballers with animals — I have followed them for years. I love sports and simply adore animals so it is a perfect coupling of things that bring me joy. I reached out to Zena, the account holder of Hockey Players With Animals (And Other Chaos). She was kind enough to explain to me why she started this account a few weeks ago. 

Her words resonated so deeply and I thought sharing them would be helpful. 

"I started @animalsofhockey because I was in a pretty dark place and everything felt like it was spiralling," Zena told me. "I'm part of a chat with a group of friends and one of them is a soccer fan who sent a photo of a